Universe Creation 101

I’ve grumbled before about how I was so disappointed to discover there was very little cross-media entertainment being represented in the programme for an event call Cross Media Week. Well, they’ve now got cross media in, and in a big way. Picnic ‘06 (their preferred name now) has included the Alternate Reality Gaming Network as a ‘Network Partner’. This means 3 things: Picnic looks more cross media, ARGs will have a profile at the event and ARGN members receive special rates. As far as I can tell no-one that is part of the ARGN or any ARG creator has been asked to give a talk (I recommended some in my grumble post). Now that would be an excellent move. But anyway, I’ve had a few emails from people going. It looks like it will be fun, BUT I’m delivering a paper AOIR this year. My first paper that really discusses the core of my research. So, although Picnic does look very exciting and I would love to catch up so many amazing cross media people attending (not presenting, attending) I have to preference my academic life for this one (basically because I’ve been preferencing industry up until now!!). But what I will do however is propose to put a listing of the cross media people who will be there so you can all meet up! I think that would be great. So, if you’re going, let me know and close to the event I’ll post about you all!

http://www.crossmediaweek.org/
 

PLAY! A Video Game Symphony is a Symphony world-tour featuring music from blockbuster video games. The music is performed by some of the finest, world-class orchestras and choirs. All concerts take place in classy, prestigious venues. Graphics on large screens suspended above the orchestra accompany the scores, highlighting memorable moments from the video games.

The concert tour took off in North America on May 27, 2006 in Chicago, followed by Europe, Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

http://www.play-symphony.com/

Mind Candy, the producers of the persistent ARG Perplex City, are looking for an Alternate Reality Game Producer:

Key Activities

• Designing and producing an ARG

Skills

• Strong and imaginative story-plotting
• Knowledge of the ARG genre and narrative-based games
• Demonstrated experience of managing a team and running innovative projects

Desirable, but not essential

• Writing experience
• Familiarity with basic web design and graphics design

Details and application

Salary dependent on experience
The position will be based in Battersea, London, UK
Please send CV and covering letter with ONE description of a novel ARG concept, 500 words max, to recruitment@mindcandydesign.com with the subject “ARG Producer”. Applications not including the ARG concept will not be considered.

Adrian Hon, the Director of Play/Executive Producer of the company, provides some insight into Mind Candy and the role at his blog.

September 16 - 29, 2006
Waking City is a game unlike any other game you’ve ever played. Its setting is your everyday life. It takes place over phone calls, e-mails and letters — but more than anything, it takes place on the streets of Toronto. For two weeks in September, teams of 5-10 players will pound the pavement, solving fiendish puzzles, uncovering Toronto’s secret history, and interacting with the agents of a vast and ancient conspiracy. They’ll feel the tug of mystery, the fun of exploration, and thrill of being part of a dynamically unfolding plot.

We combine the story-driven mystery of alternate reality games, the frenetic intensity of puzzle hunts, and the passion for public spaces of urban gaming. We love this city, and we want to celebrate it with you in a fresh and fun way. This is a game that will get you out exploring, seeing parts of Toronto you’ve never seen before, and making you see even your own neighbourhood in a new light.

http://www.torgame.com/

They’ve got a blog sharing the development of it.

Ace Tony Walsh is working on it.

Just found out from Tony Walsh’s Clickable Culture that WoW has trading cards.

I went to see a film at the cinema last night with my little brother and sister: My Super Ex-Girlfriend. I was delighted to see for the first time (for me) a verbal reference to a URL during a film. Not just a URL at the end of a film in the credits but a URL referred to by one of the characters. I’ve seen websites in films that are also on the web but not this. There wasn’t any build up and it was quite quick. But for me it was such a wonderful moment. I was disappointed when I saw the site but still, the joy of seeing it there was great. The anticipation of seeing it while I was in the theatre was even better. I won’t tell you the URL. There are a couple of sites you can see from the main page. But I recommend you give yourself a some transmedia joy and wait to see it in the film.

P.S. Neither my younger brother or sister noticed the mention of the URL. Ah, so mono-media, so passive.

P.P.S A review of the story of the film? I’m surprised some people still see men and women that way.

February 16-21, 2007

Following on from the success of Crossover Australia 2003, the South Australian Film Corporation, and the Adelaide Film Festival are calling for applications for Crossover Australia 2007.

Crossover Australia is a creative think tank that brings together independent artists, writers, filmmakers and new media producers with the aim of developing innovative digital and interactive projects. With the growth of broadband access and a plethora of emerging distribution platforms as a backdrop, Crossover Australia is a creative incubator devoted to building new forms of interactivity, such as true interactive television applications, IP and mobile TV content or even story-telling and programming inspired by RPGs (role playing games).

Over the course of five days, participants are immersed in a series of activities where the primary goal is the development of conceptual prototypes for groundbreaking interactive projects.
http://www.crossover.org.au/

Momentum - Invitation to participate

A punk rocker and a brat sit at a cafe on Stortorget. They carry on an agitated conversation about the Earth First-movement, John Dees angelic language and the experience of returning from the dead. As they leave, they post a note on the ad board covered with something looking like a mix of hieroglyphs and ASCI-code. At the same time, down at Klara Sjö, twenty people have assembled to perform a magic ritual to cleanse the polluted waters, and at the suburb square in Skärholmen, a woman calling herself Huey Newton agitates against the labor market´s discrimination of immigrants.

What would the queer activit Sylvia Rivera do if she found herself alive today? Earth First member David “Gypsy” Chain, who was crushed under a cut down redwood tree in California in 1998 - what would he have to say about the environmental situation of today? What has Ulrich Wessel, Bader-Meinhof terrorist who was blown to pieces at the West German embassy in Stockholm, learnt about non-violent methods after death? What if there would be a route back from the dead for those that never stopped believing that their acts could change the future?

Prosopopeia II, Momentum, is a live-action roleplay staged all over Stockholm during October 2006. Thirty participants play possessed by dead revolutionaries, brought back to life through technoccult methods to continue their struggle for a better world. They use political and magical means to reshape stagnated reality on both sides of the river of death. Through passionate acting, Enochian codes, Hermetic ceremonies and wearable technology they interact with each other, the city and the world beyond. The event explores the boundary between fiction and reality, between dedicated play and the daily lives of the players.

The project is an event for the ‘pervasive extremist’: the primary contract is that the player should act as if everything is real. For the player that wishes so, the game is on for twenty-four hours a day for the whole month.

Prosopopeia is the second and last event staged by the ‘enhanced reality role playing’ showcase within IPerG (Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming). IPerG is a large European research project which researches pervasive games; games that are interwoven with our lives through the items, devices and people that surround us and the places we inhabit.
Through staging numerous game experiments focussing on a range of technology choices as well as design goals, we gradually build both design knowledge and adequate technical support for such games.

More information about Momentum can be found on the Prosopopeia website, www.prosopopeia.se

This sound file was passed onto me by a colleague (Kronos you legend) in SecondLife. It’s for all the teachers out there (who have, of course, all been students)… [mp3]

Asi Sharabi has started doing a very helpful: a trends analysis of YouTube.